For one thing, it doesn’t pay a dime. Travel expenses? Sorry, but they’re not covered either.

Whenever there’s a big fundraiser, it’s expected that you pony up. That runs about $3,500 a year — at least.

Yet ...

Most everyone who gets tapped for a seat on the Zoological Society of San Diego’s board of trustees doesn’t hesitate to say yes. Far from it.

Robert Horsman is the latest person to be named to the 12-member board that runs the zoo, the Safari Park near Escondido and the zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. “I was flabbergasted,” said Horsman, 64, who was appointed in January.

Not that he should have been, perhaps. Horsman fits a familiar profile when it comes to most zoo board members — past and present.

He’s prominent in local society and successful in his line of work, which is finance. He’s white and middle-aged. He has volunteered for the zoo for years — in his case, raising funds.

“We look for people with a passion for the zoo,” said Dr. Frederick Frye, the board’s current president. “Robert has a passion for the zoo.”

The zoo is world-renowned. Nearly 5 million people visit it and the Safari Park annually.

So getting on the board that runs such a high-profile organization can be heady. One former board member, Albert Eugene Trepte, called the 12 seats “precious” in a 1985 story in the San Diego Tribune.

To land one, a person usually has to show serious commitment to the zoo over a number of years — even decades.

Frye. a retired pediatrician, served on various volunteer committees for the zoo starting in the 1970s. It wasn’t until 1993 that he was elected to the board of trustees.

When there’s a vacancy, a nominating committee made up of the board president, the former board president and a couple of board members is charged with choosing candidates.

That’s not hard to do. Lots of people contribute to the nonprofit zoo — it has more than 1,000 volunteers. The committee narrows it down to a handful of people and ultimately recommends one. Then the full board, which meets once a month, votes on the appointment.

Horsman was a unanimous choice.

Holding such a position isn’t all roses, said Pat Libby, director of the University of San Diego’s Institute for Nonprofit Education and Research.

The workload can be daunting. There’s often no compensation. In many cases, you’re required to “give or get” donations.

But being on the board of a well-known, respected institution is “a labor of love,” Libby said.

The Zoological Society of San Diego was established in 1916 by Harry Wegeforth, who wanted to care for the exotic animals left behind after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.

The board was established to oversee the institution, but it doesn’t make decisions on day-to-day operations. Its mission is strategic planning.

Today’s effort is growing all the more challenging, Frye said. Zoos are no longer simply places where people go to see cool animals. Animals in the wild are vanishing, and it’s up to zoos to prevent their extinction and return them to wild habitats if possible.

“Sustainability is the biggest challenge we face,” Frye said.

That means a trustee position is hardly ceremonial. “We’re very involved,” Frye said.

Of late, changes have been made to make sure the board remains fresh and engaged, he added. Last year, term limits were placed on board members. They can serve a maximum of five terms, each lasting three years. And the maximum age for a board member is 75.

In the past, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for board members to serve for decades.

While there’s more trustee turnover today, the board is hardly the model of diversity. It didn’t have a female president until 1986, and there has never been an African-American or Latino board member.

Many of the current trustees have long histories with the zoo. Frye remembers going as a boy and feeding the spider monkeys, which would take the food with their tails.

“It’s a hell of a board,” said Weldon Donaldson, a former television executive. “The zoo has projects going all over the world.”

Rarely does the public hear much about the board’s work. You have to go back to 2003 for a significant controversy. That’s when the board voted to bring seven wild elephants from Swaziland. Animal-rights groups opposed the move, saying they shouldn’t be taken from Africa.

The last time the board generated much attention was last year, when it approved changing the name of the Wild Animal Park to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

A lot of people didn’t like it. At the time, the trustees’ decision generated headlines.

Normally, the trustees don’t make news. “We like it that way,” Donaldson said.